Kettlebell Kitchen: fast health food

The amount of times I've been in Manchester and needed to eat something quick before going to meet people doesn't bear thinking about. Manchester is packed with fast food places, the vast majority of which are not particularly good for you- the Food Court is a minefield of salt and preservatives, Subway is fattier than McDonalds, and standalone takeaway joints hardly scream 'clean eating.' Pita Pit is a step in the right direction it seems,  and I've eaten there recently- it's a little dearer than the above options but is worth it. Their Deansgate branch is handy if you're in the centre of Town. 

If you're in the north of the Centre, though, it might be worth strolling through the northern quarter to work up an appetite and dive into Kettlebell Kitchen on Great Ancoats Street.

You'll need to take a short walk away from the CIS tower and out towards New Islington. Once there you'll find a clean and tidy gym-style cafe with woodchip décor and gym-themed designs- a kettlebell and weight disc fixed to every table, gymnastics rings on the walls, and a counter serving a range of protein-based healthy meals- the halloumi wrap I had was fit. Kettlebell Kitchen runs a reward scheme through which you collect stamps for each day you buy a meal, and your 6^th meal is free. The loyalty scheme has a number of other perks including further reductions- drop in to find out more.

This is not a sponsored post, by the way. I'm just fed up of putting weight on through needing to eat on the fly. KBK has been open for a year now- can't believe I've only just found out about it. We'll see if Manchester's new addition to the restaurant scene is as healthy as it claims, as I'll be dropping in again.

“He claimed he took Uranus apart”

Even though I find my tolerance diminishes

When I start a trilogy I've just got to finish it

Hence I ploughed though a huge excess

of surrealist cut-up with The Nova Express

Sense-withdrawal, lemur people

All mashed up with the previous sequel

So even though it's a terrible bore

It's not Deja Vu; I have read it before

What surprised me though, and here's some news

Scientology was practised before Tom Cruise

Pushed it out into the mainstream media

Published in 62, and you can read it here

Not that it made a great deal of sense,

and I doubt it was based on real events

I can give you an example straight of the mark:

He claimed he took Uranus apart

I don't see how this could have gone on, hey?

What? You mean it's a double entendre?

The notes at the back made a huge investigation

to minor changes in punctuation

in the way he left his ellipses scattered

But I failed to see how that really mattered

when none of it made sense anyway

Give me Naked Lunch over this any day

A trio of stories with minimal synergy

I'm glad to say I've finished the trilogy.

Moving onto a different media

A review of a podcast is what you can read here

“So something I can listen to, is what you're tellin' me?”

Indeed. And it's called “My Own Worst Enemy.”

Danny Whittaker has done his research

and produced a series of audio features

packed with information on mental health

with expert speakers and, of course, himself

phobias, history and a range of conditions

are covered in the 'cast, so give it a listen!

We party through the week, yeah? Don't you know?

With Tuckshop Mondays at Lola Lo

Student night with decent people

With a refurb covering cellar to steeple

The atmos and prices I've gotta respect,

But I'd advise the bar to sack their architect

The flow of wines and juice was steady

But the tile decorations were loose already

Also, could the management consider a suggestion?

They might want to change up their music selection

I realise that playing RnB is all it takes

But I am fucking sick of always hearing Drake

Seeing as Tahitian vibes are all what it's about,

Why not mix it up with a little tropical house?

So Monday nights are back on track,

And like Arnie keeps saying, I'll be back.

Tuckshop Mondays Tonight!

An action-packed week in Manchester awaits.

Lola Lo reopened last week! The Deansgate Locks club / tiki bar is back after a refurb. Manchester Cool Bars is headed there tonight to check out the new design and the new Monday night event Tuckshop Mondays!. We've been on a Monday before and it was a great night. Much better than the weekend events.

Waterstones Deansgate has an interesting events lineup. Here's their chalkboard:

Friday night: RnB singer Ashanti drops into The Milton Club for Truth, which is hosting her concert afterparty. She's probably going to sing. Milton's events are always superb. Cool Bars are headed there, so come join us! We're starting in Sakana. Tickets are running out so buy fast! You'd be Foolish to miss out.

Saturday: a talk at Oldham Library discusses A Clockwork Orange author and fellow Mancunian Anthony Burgess. It's free, but booking is essential.

Later that night: WBC champ Deontay Wilder takes on Gerald Washington. I'm tied up but should be an explosive fight.

I have more news about next week, which I'll tell you about... next week.

So. The first weekend of Citizen Journalism month is under the belt.

No groundbreaking stories just yet, but it's early days.

Valentine's Day passed uneventfully on Tuesday. I wish I'd got more organised in advanced and put up a meetup for some early drinks somewhere, so there was at least a place for people to go to do something social and meet new mates. Next year!

Saturday: I stumbled across the Spinningfields Makers Market on Deansgate, where people sell locally-made produce such as food and trinkets.

Great music and burgers. It takes place on the third weekend of every month. The next one will be 17th-19^th March. Find it outside Australasia on the way into Spinningfields.

Here's Ray from Britain's Got Talent dancing to Buddy Holly's Heartbeat, being performed by the Piccadilly Rats.

Ray from #bgt with the Piccadilly Rats, wearing the union jack suit he wore from the show #Manchester

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Feb 19, 2017 at 6:25am PST

Local singer Alice Hollywood also set up stall nearby to perform her covers of contemporary pop songs. Good talent.

More info to come, including a club reopening, a celebrity singer and a boxing match.

Citizen Journalism Month

An expensive night for someone in #liv #Manchester #socialite #domperignon

A post shared by Matt Tuckey (@matttuckey) on Feb 17, 2017 at 2:19pm PST

I've done a lot of preparation for this particular project. I've learned the basics of touch typing (here and here) and shorthand (here). I've tried to improve my writing over the years and deliver information with a bit more journalistic professionalism. It's now time to take this blog up a level.

For the next month I'll be visiting Manchester looking for stories and information, and hopefully beating the MEN and other publications to the scoops. So what might I come across?

I have in mind to report on book signings, nightlife events, arrests and celebrity appearances. I'll talk to police and security professionals, journalists and other bloggers in the hope that I'll help people as well as entertain them with the writing I publish. I'll talk to existing contacts, and forge new ones. I'll go out with a reporter's notebook and my camera phone. I'll wear knee pads so I can climb onto things to get filming vantage points. I'll get pictures and video. I'll talk to people about things and record sound on the Mini Recorder app. And then I'll get home and upload it all as quickly as possible. It's going to mean a few very late nights!

I'm aiming to get the kind of hits I got back in 2014- in some periods this was 15-30k hits a month. January's hits? 2k. A challenge lies ahead!

You missed a few parties this week...

Cool Bars meetup group went out to LIV's Thursday night party, for the first birthday of Socialite. Can't complain about the free glass of Prosecco on arrival!

I've met some cool people in Socialite over the months but I'm finding that a lot of girls there- particularly Indians- are ridiculously hard to talk to. I've been to other places where people are a lot more receptive to a simple chat.

The advertising for the night suggested there were 'celebrity guests'- I didn't recognise anyone, and I do a fair bit of Z-lister hounding (if you're new to the blog).

I'll do other midweek nights from now on.

On Friday Cool Bars went to the launch of 4 Mayfair at Suburbia. Like Socialite, this night also had Drake between every other RnB song and was full of snobby Asian girls, with the added disappointment of large groups of drunk lads falling about and shoving into people. Oh, and Scott, Kady and Adam J from Love Island.

I hadn't formally ruled out Suburbia although I'd never been particularly bowled over by it. I've decided I won't be back there either.

On Saturday night it started to snow in Greater Manchester, but that didn't stop people turning up to Sakana for a few early drinks. I had put up a meetup with Cool Bars with the intention of letting people decide a a group whether we stayed there or moved on. A good group came together for this and we stayed there for a few hours (largely because the queue at Albert's Schloss next door was horrendous). Sakana itself was busy, with live sax accompaniment and full off gorgeous girls. Of course. And free WiFi. We'll go back there.

Contrasting the class of this bar was Deansgate Locks, around which I took a stroll looking for stories for the blog. All I found was this guy spewing onto his own coat.

Nice.

I'll just go to the Locks midweek from now on I think. Running out of options!

I have more ideas for meetups- keep your eye on the Cool Bars page!

Teeline Shorthand is HARD

I've just spent the last month trying to learn shorthand. I've scoured Youtube for tutorial videos and practised the techniques for Teeline nearly every day. It's a complex language with indicative strokes to represent letters of the alphabet, designed to allow us to write words quicker. It's taken a long time to get to where I am, and I've not really got even the basics.

Shorthand Sue's videos were great, but there weren't that many of them. I soon found myself looking at Teeline Online, another youtuber making clear demonstrations of how to write the shorthand alphabet and how to put together some simple words. Strange shapes soon started to make sense, and squiggles slowly became readable information. Kinda. It's hard to learn but I'm starting to incorporate it into my own note taking systems. Putting words and sentences into their abbreviated form takes a lot of thinking about but I'm hoping I'll be able to keep practising.

Her videos start as demonstrations of the basics, then transcriptions of popular songs that play in the background. 

I thought this was a fun way of seeing how Teeline works. I hope she keeps uploading.

I still feel that I would need more of a detailed shape to indicate the original word than what Teeline suggests I would write, so for my own memory difficulties (improved note taking being why I'm trying to learn shorthand in the first place) I may need to adapt it slightly. But the initial constrictions of words that I've learned so far I expect will give me a little more ability and speed. I'm beginning to incorporate it into my handwriting already.